1960s Music And Beyond

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Totally 60s Psychedelic Rock at the BBC

Tx. 23.10.15 • 10.00-11.00pm • BBC Four

Overall, a fine though somewhat predictable representation which tends to cling to the giants of the genre, inevitable, perhaps, given the hour-slot and what remains in the archives. Essential psychedelic bands who were big at the time such as Tomorrow and The Idle Race feel notable for their absence as well as those who embraced aspects of the movement – Family and Caravan, to name but two. Still, it’s good to see the psychedelic net cast wide so as to embrace comic, folk, baroque and pure pop facets of the genre.

Here is a complete rundown of what this compfest offered together with a few thoughts from me along the way.

A straightforward studio (surely mimed) performance which has had many outings going back to The Rock ‘n’ Roll Years. Even given the stately nature of the song, the staging is rather uninspired and this must be just prior to the introduction of the ‘tin foil’ Top of the Pops set.

This is presumably the only BBC performance remaining in the archives, at least from the early psychedelic incarnation of the band (not that they ever described themselves as such).

The Who – I Can See for MilesTwice a Fortnight • b/w 1967

The camerawork and editing are a vital part of the performance with dizzying zooms and rapid pulls sideways as if to capture a far reaching but jarring vision. Whoever produced this clearly thought the song was about more than “a jealous man with exceptionally good eyesight – honest!” as Pete Townshend has claimed. Watch

A sudden switch to pristine colour for this show’s guest spot with a pretty, pink trousered Donovan perched on a studio stool with acoustic guitar and a band heard but nowhere to be seen. Donovan seems quite entranced by his own song. Watch

The Nice – AmericaHow It Is • b/w 1968

This tries every trick in the book to inject excitement over and above the pyrotechnics (or antics, depending on your point of view) of Keith Emerson’s gymnastic, knife stabbing keyboard performance.

It’s like being granted some kind of enhanced vision – overhead lights topple like flying saucers, Emerson’s huge hands seem to knuckle into the camera lens, overlapping, spilling images jerk away to the edge of oblivion and back again. Watch

Francis Rossi wrote this in the toilet, we are told, appropriate perhaps given how little regard he has for the song though he’s clearly enjoying the ridiculousness of it all here, barely suppressing a laugh or perhaps just forgetting to mime.

Based around some insistent chord changes, a repetitive, ringing guitar riff, ample phasing and some nonsensical words, it feels basic rather than exotic now but still something of a classic of chart pop-psych and an object of fascination given how the band were soon to depart from this template.

A favourite clip of mine – something about diminutive Steve Marriott manhandling that electric guitar, strutting around the stage, furiously pouting from behind a newly grown fringe though it’s Ronnie Lane who carries the vocal here. Given the hard rock feel of the song, I love it when they yell ‘the texture and the flavour!’ Actually it’s the metallic hardness which works so well to hammer home the unusual themes – hard physical graft and aching lust. Watch

The Moody Blues – Ride My See-SawLate Night Line Up • colour 1968

Seen many, many times but still delights as they look at their best around this time and this early rock outing written by John Lodge is a long standing fan favourite.

A friend newly exploring the band’s output and stumbling across this clip was highly amused by Ray Thomas’s finger clicking, wrist twitching ‘dad dancing’ and it also seems odd Ray’s clothes resemble almost precisely those worn by Jon Pertwee in his first season as Doctor Who (apologies for these irrelevant asides..).

I do like the way that TV studios came in every colour and hue in the late 60s and 70s, not the boringly ubiquitous midnight blue of today.

The Move were described by Joe Boyd in the documentary preceding this comp as ‘beer drinkers’ psychedelia’, said with fondness and acknowledgement of Roy Wood’s talents to absorb what was going on around him. Another major contender might have been the insane Cherry Blossom Clinic but it was The Idle Race, a lesser band in the scheme of things, who were the major league Birmingham psychedelics. Watch

This must be the legendary appearance when the audience – and Lulu – were almost blown away by the sonic power of the Experience onslaught, in one of those strange but fascinating cultural collisions so characteristic of the late 60s. A resplendant clip but I wonder what had immediately preceded it. ‘Boom-Bang-a-Bang’? Watch

Cream – White RoomOmnibus • colour 1969

The BBC were at the Royal Albert Hall to film Cream’s farewell concert in November 1968 for their regular arts slot.

The Moody Blues – OmLate Night Line Up • colour 1968

My favourite clip of the evening, partly because I am a fan of the Moody Blues and partly because I always suspected that they had recorded more than just the one song (Ride My See-Saw) for Late Night Line Up and partly because it was wonderful to find the second song should turn out to be the blissful Om.

Here we have a blue suited John Lodge at the cello, Justin seated with sitar, Graham also seated at bongos, Ray poised with flute and Mike, of course, at the mellotron, an unusual ensemble. You can almost feel that sense of questing and discovery which In Search of the Lost Chord – and psychedelia – was all about. What we have here is an edited version though.

In a nice bit of synchronisation, the spiralling out light sequence which closed the piece in 1968 becomes one with the more geometric version which ends this programme. WatchMoody Blues Photo Credit: emmapeelpants via Compfightcc